Madam, – I agree with Frank Walsh (November 11th) that the Irish wake is a wonderful tradition worth retaining.
However, I sometimes wonder about two aspects of Irish funerals.
The first aspect is the hurry to get funerals finished in Ireland, typically within three or four days.
Those family and relatives residing abroad must therefore hurry to buy very expensive short-notice flight tickets; in the worst-case scenario, they cannot arrange to travel within four days.
In Finland, it is customary for a few weeks to go by before the funeral event, thereby permitting family ample time to arrange affairs and travel requirements.
That said, Finnish funerals are very private and solemn events; it is not a community event, there is no such thing as processions (except for state funerals), only family and nearest relatives are involved.
The second aspect is the lack of photography at Irish funerals; the only memento from an Irish funeral is the card with the prayer and photo. In Finland, it is common for the family to take a few photos of the funeral event, thereby ensuring a cradle-to-grave record of the deceased.
I think that is a good custom. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – In these straitened times surely we should be able to facilitate our hard-working TDs by having a facility in your death notices where those inserting them could put a discrete symbol, such as the “P” used for parking, to signify that a politician could let go of the parish-pump handle or not attend the deceased’s funeral. It would be doing us and the State a service if they would drop the hypocrisy of their attendance and get on with the job they were elected for. – Yours, etc,